Interact Club

What is Interact?

Interact is a happy medium between a social club and a service club. It can give you the best of two possible worlds. Interact is for young people ages 14-18. Each Interact club is sponsored by a Rotary Club, which guides the Interactors in developing local and international service projects. Interact derives its name from the words "international" and "action," reflecting the nature of an organization that exists in 110 countries and promotes active service at home and abroad. Interact gives young people an opportunity to participate in fun, meaningful service proiects. Interact, however, is not an exclusive club. The most important credential is that a person wants to join and become a part of a lively group involved in serving the community and promoting international understanding. A typical Interactor, someone once said, "is friendly, is caring, and is interested in things. Along the way, Interactors develop their leadership skills and initiative while meeting new friends. With almost 200,000 members and more than 8,600 clubs worldwide, Interact provides a powerful force of youthful enthusiasm and energetic service.

Interact is both work and play

Interact is a service club, which means work. It gives you the opportunity to work with friendly people, which makes it fun as well.
When young people learn to depend on each other, to share ideas, and to enjoy working together, more gets done, and it gets done more effectively. The people involved also benefit and learn from the experience.
Although there is work involved, it should be emphasized that there is fun for all as well.; the social and service aspects of the club blend together. When young, enthusiastic and energetic people get together, contributing new ideas and a sense of humor, you end up with a club that is worth looking into.

What does an Interact club do?

The goal of international service through Interact is to encourage and foster the advancement of international understanding, goodwill, and peace through a world fellowship of youth united in the ideal of service. Interact clubs organize a variety of projects and activities, depending primarily on the interests of the club members. However, within the Interact program, all clubs undertake activities to enhance leadership skills, serve their community, and expand international understanding. Together, these activities ensure a balanced club program and provide important experience and opportunities for the personal development of each Interactor. Each club carries out local service projects that benefit its community or school, such as fundraisers for a variety of causes, blood drives, benefit concerts, and visits to nursing homes, and homeless shelters. Interactors also develop international service projects that expand their understanding of the world and promote goodwill.

Service Above Self is Rotary's foremost guiding principle. An Interact club's service projects are designed to improve the quality of life at home and abroad. These projects often address today's most critical issues, such as violence, drug abuse, AIDS, hunger, the environment, and illiteracy. Each Interact club is required to complete at least two major service projects annually; one to serve the community and another to promote international understanding. Each should involve all or most of the members of the club.